A man may well be condemned, not for doing something, but for doing nothing.
But the best definition of it is to say that heaven is that state where we will always be with Jesus, and where nothing will separate us from Him any more.
Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.
For the Christian, heaven is where Jesus is. We do not need to speculate on what heaven will be like. It is enough to know that we will be for ever with Him.
God himself took this human flesh upon him.
If a man fights his way through his doubts to the conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord, he has attained to a certainty that the man who unthinkingly accepts things can never reach.
In the time we have it is surely our duty to do all the good we can to all the people we can in all the ways we can.
Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and to take up His Cross.
Religion fails if it cannot speak to men as they are.
The awful importance of this life is that it determines eternity.
The tragedy of life and of the world is not that men do not know God; the tragedy is that, knowing Him, they still insist on going their own way.
There are two great days in a person's life - the day we are born and the day we discover why.
We will often find compensation if we think more of what life has given us and less about what life has taken away.
When we believe that God is Father, we also believe that such a father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear. We may not understand life any better, but we will not resent life any longer.
When we love anyone with our whole hearts, life begins when we are with that person; it is only in their company that we are really and truly alive.
In
the Bible, the gospel is the entire saving plan of God, all revolving around
the person, the place and power of our Savior Jesus Christ, the incarnate,
crucified, risen, reigning, returning Lord.
Preaching
the gospel requires us to show how Jesus Christ relates to every
part of God's plan, and how every part of it relates to us who are savingly
related to the living Christ through faith.
Evangelism
involves explaining life in Christ as well as inviting
sinners to Him. This means dealing with six main
topics, as follows:
1.
The Truth about God.
The
one God who made and rules everything is revealed as three persons
through His plan of salvation.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit love us, and work together to
save us from sin and
make us holy. Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate, is Lord over all
the powers of evil. Any other
view of God is idolatry.
2.
The Truth about Ourselves.
We were made for God, to bear His image and be like Him in moral character, but sin controls and spoils us so that we need to be brought back to God to be forgiven and remade. Jesus Christ, who brings us back, is Himself the model of true godliness. Any other view is deception.
3.
The Story of God's Kingdom.
Step by step, as Scripture tells, God has been working to establish His kingdom in this fallen world. Jesus Christ is the King, and our lives are to be His kingdom. King Jesus is also the Judge, and those who have not bowed to His kingship here will not share His joy hereafter. Trusting, loving and honoring Jesus, and serving others for His sake, is true godliness at its heart. Any other form of religion is error.
4.
The Way of Salvation.
Jesus Christ, our sin‑bearer on the cross, now from His throne reaches out to rescue us who are lost in the guilt and shame of sin. He calls for faith (trust in Him as Savior) and repentance (turn to Him as Master). He sends His Holy Spirit to change us inwardly so that we hear His call as addressed to us personally and respond wholeheartedly to it. Whereupon we are forgiven and accepted (justified); received as God's children (adopted); made to rejoice at our peace with Him (assurance); and made to realize that now we are living a new life in Christ (regeneration). Any other view of salvation is deficient.
5.
The Life of Fellowship.
Christians belong in the church, the family of God, sharing its worship, work, witness and warfare, and enjoying its worldwide brotherhood in Christ. Any other view of the Christian is sectarian.
6.
Walking Home to Heaven.
Helped by the ministry in the church of word and sacrament, prayer and pastoral care, spiritual gifts and loving support, Christians live in our constantly hostile world as travelers, heading for a glorious destination. Led and inspired by their Savior through the Holy Spirit, they seek to do all the good they can as they go, and to battle all forms of evil that they meet. Any lesser view of the Christian life is wordly.
All this is permanently and universally true, transcending all differences of color, race, culture, age, gender, health, economic standing, social position and political background. As the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit sustain us all, so the gospel levels us all, teaching us to know ourselves as great sinners saved by God's greater grace, and to see all non‑Christians as needing that same grace themselves.
For
reflection and Consideration:
1.
How completely am I preaching the Gospel?
2.
Which of these six Gospel topics do I need to preach more fully than
I have been preaching?
3.
Am I including the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in my preaching?
4.
Am I properly explaining the saving relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ?
This
Amsterdam 2000 speech text is under copyright. The author has rights
protected by
international
law. This text is not for reprint or republication. The message
actually delivered at
Amsterdam
2000 may have differed significantly from this text.
God will break you to position He will break you to promote you And break you to put you in your right place But when He breaks you He doesn't hurt you, He doesn't When He breaks you He does it with; grace Anybody been gracefully broken? Thank You, Lord, thank You So Father tonight, we're broken before You Thank You for handling us with grace Just lift your worship right there in this moment
Take all I have in these hands And multiply, God, all that I am And find my heart on the altar again Set me on fire, set me on fire Take all I have in these hands And multiply, God, all that I am And find my heart on the altar again Set me on fire, set me on fire
Here I am, God Arms wide open Pouring out my life Gracefully broken
My heart stands in awe of Your name Your mighty love stands strong to the end You will fulfill Your purpose in me You won't forsake me, You will be with me
Here I am, God Arms wide open Pouring out my life Gracefully broken Here I am, God Arms wide open Pouring out my life Gracefully broken
All to Jesus now All to Jesus now I'm holding nothing back Holding nothing back I surrender (I surrender) Y'all throw your hands up and sing I surrender (I surrender) Say I surrender (I surrender) All that I am, I surrender (I surrender) Have Your way, use me Lord, I surrender (I surrender) Do Your will, it's all Your way, I surrender (I surrender) Use my life for Your glory, say I surrender all (I surrender) You want to tell right where you are (I surrender)
(Oh) Your power at work in me (Oh) I'm broken gracefully (Oh) I'm strong when I am weak (Oh, ooh-oh) I will be free (Oh, ooh-oh) Your power at work in me (Oh, ooh-oh) I'm broken gracefully (Oh, ooh-oh) I'm strong when I am weak (Oh, ooh-oh) I will be free (Oh, ooh-oh) Your power at work in me (Oh, ooh-oh) I'm broken gracefully (Oh, ooh-oh) I'm strong when I am weak (Oh, ooh-oh) I will be free (Oh, ooh-oh) Your power at work in me (Oh, ooh-oh) I'm broken gracefully (Oh, ooh-oh) I'm strong, I'm strong (Oh, ooh-oh) I will be free
Here I am, God Arms wide open Pouring out my life Gracefully broken
It
seems as though God has been trying to speak to me lately just how
intimately connected he is with our lives. While this is not the
place to debate predestination we must determine and set before us
the goal to be about the Lords work. While that seems completely
obvious its not as simple as it would appear on face value. Often I
find that I am doing a work for God verses doing Gods work. When I do
Gods work I am seeking His agenda for my life. The more I am seeking
Gods agenda the less I will be concerned and waste time worrying about
the events f this life; cars, computers, health, food, food, and
housing.
When
I relate this to the Adopt-A-People commitment we personally must determine that we are committed to seeking Gods goals for the church.
This results in a desire not only for Our church but a focus that
people, Gods chosen people, have yet to hear the Gospel, respond,
fellowship together, and begin to evangelise there own.
“Not for me” said Peter; “I’m going to explore in the house.”
Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and
it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only
into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but
soon they came to a very long room full of pictures and there they
found a suit of armour; and after that was a room all hung with green,
with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five
steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out
on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each
other and were lined with books —- most of them very old books and
some bigger than a Bible in a church. And shortly after that they
looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe;
the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else
in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the window-sill.
Would this but be what had happened, but everyone failed to honor the people.
"We
go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their
country.
We
are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be
flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.
There
are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly.
Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send.
As
for the others I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if
that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember
to be magnanimous in victory.
Iraq
is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the
Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there.
You
will see things that no man could pay to see and you will have to go
a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than
the Iraqis.
You
will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have
nothing.
Don't
treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their
children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light
of liberation in their lives was brought by you.
If
there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and
got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day.
Allow
them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves."
ColonelTimothy Thomas Cyril CollinsOBE[1] (born 30 April 1960)
This uneasiness stems from the persistent paradigm that mission is fundamentally something we do; and especially if we use the word 'mission' as more or less synonymous with evangelism.
The appropriateness of speaking of 'a missional basis of the Bible' becomes apparent only when we shift our paradigm of mission from our own human agency to the ultimate purposes of God himself, for clearly the Bible is, in some sense, ' about God'. What, then, does it mean to talk of the mission of God?
it is not so much, as someone has said, that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission is not just something we do (though it certainly includes that).
Truth with a Mission: towards a missiological hermeneutic of the Bible, Chris Wright Nov2001 ALL Nations.
William Barclay
